Shake Your Tambourine! (and chunck your ukulele!)

southcoastukes

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HAPPY MARDI GRAS TO ALL,

The season is rising to a crescendo! Come this tuesday I’ll be on my usual route - Uptown New Orleans on St. Charles marching down the Avenue with Pete Fountain and his Half Fast Marching Band - then Zulu - then Rex - then over toward Shakespeare Park and the Wild Magnolias.

Wish you ‘all could be here. But it occurred to me that there might be another way for the ukulele community to celebrate. Most of the Mardi Gras music is best left to tambourine and drum. But probably the best loved song seems like a perfect ukulele vehicle.

It’s the “Mardi Gras Mambo”. There are a bunch of versions. One of the oldest (maybe the original) is a country song. The Hawkettes (w/ Art Neville) did this version – the lyrics are imposed on the scenery (although it should be “Zulu King”, not “Zulu Gang”).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1fBDVNn1pU

I know it’s late, but this only occurred to me this evening. Can any of you computercam wizards post a ukulele version before teusday night? Maybe we should make it an annual event! Amusing attire, of course, would be entirely appropriate.

There should not, however, be any nonsense of this sort after teusday. We’ve been going on down here with these balls, celebrations and parades since 12th Night (January 6th). Come wednesday (Ash Wednesday), we should all give up meat (carne – val) and be sober and reflective during the 40 days of Lent leading up to Easter (yeah, rite!).

Seriously – see what you can do. I’m confident it will be better than these guys (fairly confident):
http://www.nba.com/hornets/
There’s no direct link to the video, so click on the link for “Mardi Gras Mambo”.

p.s: As bad as the singing is on the second video, it is The Meters version of the song playing in the background. Late 70’s – it’s the runaway favorite. If any of you experts out there want to take a crack at pure New Orleans, see if you can come up with a strum like Art Neville’s (again) piano roll in the solo.
 
Chords! Thanks to fleabit over on the cosmos. As he said: "any 3-5-7 will do".

Mardi Gras Mambo

[Bb]Down in New Orleans
Where the [F7]blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To[Bb] blow a horn
On LaSalle and [F7]Rampart Street
The combos play with a [Bb]mambo beat

The [Eb7]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Bb]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[F7]Mardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Or[Bb]leans

[Bb]In Gert Town
Where the [F7]cats all meet
It's a Mardi Gras mambo
[Bb]With a beat
Shout a cheer for the [F7]Zulu king
And truck on down
With a [Bb]mambo swing

The [Eb7]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Bb]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[F7]Mardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Or[Bb]leans

[Bb]Down in New Orleans
Where the [F7]blues was born
It takes a cool cat
To [Bb]blow a horn
On LaSalle and [F7]Rampart Street
The combo's there with a [Bb]mambo beat

The [Eb7]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Bb] Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[F7]Mardi Gras, mambo-ooh
Down in New Or[Bb]leans

[Eb7]Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Bb] Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Eb7] Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo
[Bb] Mardi Gras, mambo, mambo, mambo.
 
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